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Thursday, September 30, 2010

Yet another sign that our most precious resource and major symptom of worldwide poverty--water, continues to be more and more scarce. The rate at which humans worldwide are pumping dry the vast underground stores of water that billions depend on has more than doubled over the past few decades. This is according to a study, entitled, "A Worldwide View of Groundwater Depletion" that is soon to be released by Utrecht University, located in Utrecht, Netherlands. As Water for Humans continues its mission to bring clean, safe drinking water to under-served populations worldwide, we want to let you know the extent of the challenges we all face, including the perilously scarce resource water is becoming.

In recent decades, the rate at which humans worldwide are pumping dry the vast underground stores of water that billions depend on has more than doubled, say scientists who have conducted an unusual, global assessment of groundwater use.

These fast-shrinking subterranean reservoirs are essential to daily life and agriculture in many regions, while also sustaining streams, wetlands, and ecosystems and resisting land subsidence and salt water intrusion into fresh water supplies.

Today, people are drawing so much water from below that they are adding enough of it to the oceans (mainly by evaporation, then precipitation) to account for about 25 percent of the annual sea level rise across the planet, the researchers find.

Your Comments Invited -- Water for Humans wants to hear from you. What do you think about our collective responsibility to ensure there is enough safe, reliable water for future generations? What do you think are some other consequences of water depletion worldwide?

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Water for Humans is a nonprofit social venture that provides sustainable low cost, clean water solutions to the 800 million people without access to safe drinking water and the 2.6 billion people without water sanitation

Water for Humans works with local, social entrepreneurs around the world to provide local employment, clean water, and a general understanding of water as an asset.